Interest in the NBA is predicated on narratives and storylines from both a current and historical perspective. Since only a handful of teams have a realistic shot at winning the title, each team and fan base must eventually come to terms with their own expectations and goals for the season. For example, Kobe Bryant is still chasing the ghost of Michael Jordan and his six rings even if any ratio...

Even though their season ended with four straight losses to the fearless Memphis Grizzlies, the Oklahoma City Thunder walked away from the 2012-13 NBA season with plenty of honors. Here is a quick run-down of where each important Thunder member ranked in the year-end awards balloting, and whether each result seems justified in the first days of a longer summer than anyone wanted.
Kevin Durant &...

The Oklahoma City Thunder must head back to Houston for Friday's Game 6 of the Western Conference first round, with a 3-2 lead in the series but a two-game losing streak on the week.
Dropping Game 5 at home by a score 0f 107-100, while creating sports-radio fodder with a disastrous “Hack-a-Asik” sequence in the fourth quarter, may have sent OKC fans into panic mode. What may make th...

It has been nearly a week since surgery ended Russell Westbrook's season, and reality is sinking in for his team, which suffered a painful 105-103 loss to Houston in Monday's Game 4.
After suffering the loss of their star guard and their chance at a first-round sweep, Westbrook's teammates have hopefully moved through the first four stages of grief. Now, in acceptance, they can acknowledge some...

The Oklahoma City Thunder's 104-101 victory over the host Houston Rockets put the West's top seed one victory away from advancing to the conference semifinals. The win came harder than it should have, though, and it highlighted some harsh realities for the Thunder as they move toward a second-round matchup with either the Clippers or Grizzlies.
OKC is undefeated without Russell Westbrook. This ...

Since more than half of the NBA's 30 teams make the playoffs, a few below-average squads inevitably sneak in. On Wednesday night, one of those mediocre teams dragged a superior opponent down to its level.
The Houston Rockets are mediocre not in terms of talent, but in their offense's utter lack of sophistication. Their game plan has all the cleverness of a pickup run at the local gym. In Game 2...

The NBA All Star starters were named last week and for the most part the fans did a decent job of selecting the players who deserved to be there. It’s a flawed system so perfection can’t be expected.
While the fans may have let biases cloud their decisions on a few players who will start, the coaches will try to fill out each roster in democratic and deserving fashion.
Or at least so we hop...

After failing their first two tests against elite Western Conference foes, the Oklahoma City Thunder managed to defeat a truly formidable rival on Wednesday night. Their adoring home fans and a national ESPN audience saw them outlast the Los Angeles Clippers in overtime, but even this triumphant moment was fraught with worrisome undercurrents.
Since most of those questions have followed the tea...

After two easy weekend victories over bottom-feeding Western Conference foes*, the Oklahoma City Thunder occupy first place in the Northwest Division. Their 8-3 record ties them with Miami for sixth-best in the NBA, while their plus-6.5 point differential trails only the Knicks, Clippers, and Grizzlies.
*110-95 over the Hornets on Friday, 119-109 over the Warriors on Sunday
The reigning Western...

The Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis Grizzlies waged an epic Western Conference Semifinals a year and a half ago, treating fans to the only seven-game series of the epic 2011 NBA Playoffs.
Each team came into Wednesday night's matchup minus a former bearded swingman standout (James Harden for the Thunder, O.J. Mayo for Memphis) but otherwise with most of the pieces from that 2011 showdown inta...

The Oklahoma City Thunder lived up to expectations by easily defeating the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night, using a 19-8 burst at the start of the fourth quarter to extend a lead that they never relinquished.
The game mostly served to showcase the Thunder's capacity for explosion. It is worth highlighting two of the weapons that sparked this particular outburst, since they have bee...

The Chicago Bulls hung close without their superstar – until the Thunder's leading man closed them out.
Kevin Durant scored six of his 24 points – including the clinching Nowitzki-esque fadeaway with Luol Deng draped all over him – in the final minute of a 97-91 road win over the relentless, still-Derrick-Rose-less Chicago Bulls.
Joakim Noah led a swarm of arms and legs that s...